Starting up is very quick, the virtual machine is created in a few seconds, and Apache is already listening on port 80.

In less than a minute I can publish online a php file.

It’s well integrated with GIT.

The only drawback is that everything is organized like “every project gets its own virtual machine”, with GIT and Apache set to work in the main directory.

Of course, since it’s a virtual machine, I can live without native integration, I configure Apache and git in my way via command line, but that’s not as comfortable as doing with a few clicks.

It can automatically save files, but it’s disabled by default, because the free version doesn’t keep the edit history: if you pay you can get the history, and that’s a nice feature for who doesn’t want to use GIT and prefers to save on Dropbox.

Another great thing is that the SSH public key of the virtual machine can be generated and copied with just one click on the username, so it’s very fit for git. About git, when I have a commit, I can’t select a single file, but it’s “all or nothing”. I think this is still because of the logic “every project gets its own virtual machine”, and this makes sense: why should I sign up to the Freelance edition and pay $7 monthly if the free version can easily allow me to manage an unlimited amount of projects? If I don’t pay I have to set and use apache/git/other tool from the command line. If I was to use this webapp everyday for work, the Freelance subscription would be a no-brainer. It’s so handy to have a perfectly “clean” virtual machine with the right tools and always available for every project?

Now that there’s the “cloud mania”, there are dozens of websites that allow to code online without install any program on the local computer. That’s perfect for who, like me, uses 2 computers at work, 2 computers at home, and often uses someone else’s computer: the problem is that my free time is limited, but if I don’t have all the tools set up as I need, I can’t develop or continue a project.

In this way I could write something during lunch time break at work, continue it in my train commute, finishing at home.

The most promising online developing environments (cloud IDE) that I found are:

For me, the most important feature is native GIT support. It looks like that all those seven webapps have this feature.

First of all, I will try codeanywhere, because it looks like it’s the only one with an Android app, so, maybe, I can use it from my BlackBerry Z10.

Another “feature” is the price, because almost all my project aren’t generating profits, so I can’t pay big subscription fees. This is the reason I won’t even try Codio, because, if you don’t pay, after 30 days the workspaces become public.